Lewis Hamilton finally became the third driver to win four drivers’ championship, equal with his rival Sebastian Vettel. And what a title race it was.

Vettel got the best start possible for his 2017 campaign with a win in Australia. He then continued to take another 5 podiums, two of which he won. Hamilton chased closely behind, taking China and Spain GP, but then slipped up in Monaco. The Brits slowly narrowed the gap between him and Vettel by winning Canada and at his home turf.

Things started to favour Hamilton after Hungary GP. The then three-time-champion won three consecutively GP after that, took 2nd in Malaysia and took the next two GP. Adding to the sweet victory, Vettel retired twice in Singapore and Japan, opened the door to the championship widely to Hamilton. The German took pole in qualifying in Singapore, but then he and his teammate, Raikonen, somehow decided to crash with Verstappen right at the start of the race. Vettel got another hit when his car’s spark plug failed in Japan, forcing him to retire again.

From that point on, the title was Hamilton to lose. Vettel’s attempt to pro-long the title challenge got a bit of hope when Hamilton crash in Q1 in Mexico. However, the Brits pulled an amazing comeback and managed to finish P9, which was enough for him to seal the championship.

But 2017 season was not only between Vettel and Hamilton. Red Bull has quite a successful season with Ricciardo and Verstappen on 4th and 5th. The team finished third on the constructors’ standing. Their young Dutch driver, Verstappen showed signs that he can be a title contender for the 2018 F1.

Force India also had a good result, finished behind Red Bull on the constructors’ standing. Perez and Ocon finished 6th and 7th, respectively. However, the two created quite some drama. Especially after Perez made contact with his own teammate in Baku, leading to speculation of internal bust-up.

“Disastrous” may not even fully describes McLaren’s season. Fernando Alonso couldn’t finish a total of 10 races, most out of every driver. Most of the time, it was due to engine problem. Honda finally sorted things out, but it was too little too late. McLaren decided it had had enough and chose Renault as engine supplier next year.

F1 2018 might be quite entertaining. Will Halo affect drivers’ performance? Will Mercedes retain their crown? Will the return of Alfa Romeo a game changer? There are so many questions, but for now we have to wait until March next year.